August 2005 Archives

Scientists got light to travel faster than c, the accepted speed of light. Apparently, this doesn't violate all that relativity stuff, but that's just more stuff that I don't understand yet. I hope to, eventually, of course.

In The Pipeline discusses cancer, and why it won't be easy to kill. Among his points is one I don't see mentioned often: there is no such disease as cancer.

There's a widespread myth at work here: that there's a disease called cancer. Cancer is actually the end result of what are probably hundreds (thousands?) of different diseases. We have confused ourselves by giving them the same category name - it's like the old-style classification of infections as various "fevers." There are many, many ways that a cell can end up with (and maintain) the deranged growth profile that we think of as cancerous, and it's going to take a lot of different treatments to do anything about them.

A good read.

I packaged up my camera and took it to DHL to send to Nikon for a relatively minor - but still annoying - problem with blown white pixellation in dark areas of some of my images. They received it the next day, and after a minor clusterfuck that kept them from actually doing anything with the camera until July 26th, it went into "shop" status. When I called on the 29th to get an update on what they were doing, they explained the the repairs could take up to seven days, not including weekends. The Nikon Service department does not do weekends. I am reasonably frustrated with this repair pace, but based on the fact that the repair was classified as a "Class C", or major, repair, costing almost $300 if I weren't in the warranty period, I was willing to give them a little time. It's a sensitive piece of equipment. I don't want them to cut corners. I checked on Wednesday, August 3rd, and it was still in "shop" status... right up to midnight, and well into Thursday. On Thursday, August 4th, the status changed. Not to "repair service completed", as the helpful recording on their phone system told me it would when the repair was finished. No, it switched to the mystery "bill" status - bizarre, since my camera is in a warranty repair. I assumed that it was, perhaps, going through invoicing - you know, where they print up that list of what they did to it? - and figured it would be there a couple hours. But there it stayed, all through Thursday. And Friday. And the weekend. When I called Monday, wondering where my camera was, the nice lady told me (after twenty minutes of hold music) that "bill" status actually means it's in quality control, which could take a day - just to make sure the camera was up to manufacturer specifications. I explained that the camera had been in bill status for a couple days already, and she told me that I could assume it would be shipping soon. That's good to know. But the camera didn't leave "bill" status on Tuesday. Or Wednesday. I called Wednesday (yesterday) and explained the situation. The most helpful lady there (so far) told me that she'd check into it and call me, either yesterday or today. My camera's still in that mysterious "bill" status, but I haven't gotten a phone call. My question to Nikon is: Do you know where my camera is?

To The People claims that this is the "best ad ever". I had my doubts, but having seen it, I really can't disagree.

I am so freaking miserable right now. Sam gave me this cough thing that he had, see. I was thinking - just a cough? No big deal, right? Right, well, I haven't slept for more than 60 contiguous minutes for the last three days. My throat feels like someone took a lawn aerator and went to work in there. Eating anything that isn't frozen just simply kills. Even cool water hurts to drink. Can someone just knock me out and wake me up when it's over?

So, I've been slightly evil. If you don't keep up with my husband's blog, you wouldn't probably know that we're buying a house. Haha! I say. I will one-up him. I've got pictures. Read all about it on his blog. I'll try to update ... occasionally.